The Profile of Political Leaders

By analysing a wide range of empirical research into leadership, this book provides a composite portrait of frequent characteristics, such as personality and demeanour, that influence both the success and popularity of political leaders. Through the lenses of mass psychology and collective behaviour sociology, the author offers fascinating observations on political leadership which reveal a coherent pattern. In our choice of and support for leaders, we still seem to be guided by unconscious or instinctive preferences. Evolutionary psychologists have labelled this 'CALP' for 'Cognitive Ancestral Leadership Prototype'. Length, symmetry, face form, voice pitch, eye blinking and more turn out to play a role even today - alongside personality and style. Each chapter of the book offers a case study to illustrate these observations, including Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Boris Johnson. This book is accessibly written to appeal to students of politics, psychology and sociology, as well as the wider interested reader.

Demonstrates how our choices of political leaders are influenced by unexpected factors such as physiognomy or height Offers a new perspective on leadership in a time when discursive power is becoming increasingly more important than coercive power Provides an in-depth analysis of the leadership of key figures in international politics

Autorentext

Jaap van Ginneken is Former Associate Professor of Communication Science at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He has extensive experience in media and journalism and is the author of 24 books, 10 in English. His previous book The Psychology of Power was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2014.

Inhalt

Chapter 1: First Impressions of Leaders.- Chapter 2: Height and Posture.- Chapter 3: Name and Destiny.- Chapter 4: Limbs and Gestures.- Chapter 5: Personality and Traits.- Chapter 6: Face and Expressions.- Chapter 7: Style and Demeanour.- Chapter 8: Voice and Speech.- Chapter 9: Time and Place.- Chapter 10: Leaders from the Stone Age?.- Appendix.- Acknowledgments.- Index.- Author.